Pretz: Pumpkin

Halloween may be over, but here in the U.S. at least we have a few more weeks of pumpkin themed fun. So I thought now would be a good time to pull out the Pumpkin Pretz my good friends at J-List were nice enough to send my way.

Pretz, for those unfamiliar, are the savory sibling of Pocky. If you don't know what Pocky is, your life up to this point has been but a mere shadow of what it could be. Which means you need to get to J-List RIGHT NOW and order some...yes, you WILL thank me.



What had me a little confused at first was the fact that the flavor is called "pumpkin," but the photos on the package looked like acorn squash to me. A little Googling revealed that the photos are of kabocha -- which is a type of winter squash, commonly known as Japanese pumpkin. (Click here to learn more about kabocha than you ever probably wanted to know). So...



These Pretz smell interesting. The best description I can give is sort of like cereal left next to strong coffee. Yes I know that sounds bad, but it's actually pretty good.

The taste is as interesting and unusual as the smell. The first thing that came to mind was Cap'n Crunch cereal...kind of sweet, a bit of corn, but then as the sweetness dies down there is a very mild squash taste. A really good buttery, roasted acorn squash. Trust me when I say I am not doing justice to how good it tastes.

There's a little bit of everything. It's sweet, it's salty, it's crunchy. I just loved everything about these Pretz. My only complaint is that now I need more!




PURCHASED FROM:
Provided by J-List

Glico Pretz- Basil

Sometimes even I would prefer a salty snack. Pretz are the savory cousin to Japan's popular world over treat Pocky (I am a Pocky addict)
Pretz much like Pocky comes in just about any flavor you could possibly imagine. I'd like to thank my friends over at JLIST.Com for sending me out this pouch of Basil Pretz to try.

I looooove me some basil. I grow it on my balcony and I have been known to eat it straight off the plant. It is a MUST for me in my pasta sauce and in general I love it in every thing. So eating a cracker flavored with basil should be a slam dunk right?

Opening the pouch the scent that greets you is a salty dried basil smell- off to a good start!

Each stick varies in length a little bit but generally they are about the size of a pretzel stick.

Each stick is speckled with little flacks of basil. The taste is salty and there's almost a poultry seasoning type flavor but the basil stands out as the dominate flavor by far. It's so vibrant that if you didn't know better you should easily pretend that it is fresh basil. The cracker that actually makes up the stick is neutral without much of a flavor of it's own- which works out perfectly because nothing stands in the way of the basil. Yes, they are salty but it just enhances the basil and makes you want to eat more.

These are just great snacks. Besides eating them straight from the pouch I could think of tons of ways to use them- I am dying to get another bag to crush into "breadcrumbs" to make meat balls with!

an 11!

PURCHASED FROM:
Provided by Jlist.com

Glico Cocoa Pretz

Is it me or does anyone else find the image of the cow drinking hot chocolate on the box disturbing?
How close to cow cannibalism is that? (and yes, I realize that all species pretty much drink their own milk- that just doesn't sound as good now does it?)

The strange eating habits of cows aside...
The Cocoa Pretz are just kind of weird. What they are is a cocoa colored stick that's made of a biscuit. There is appears to no cocoa powder that comes off the stick but there are grains of salt. I thought maybe it was just my weird sense of taste- but at first I swore they tasted vaguely like those "Chicken In A Basket" crackers. Looking at the ingredients I found that seasoning salt is listed. Guess maybe my sense of taste wasn't that far off.

Weird chicken flavor aside, the cocoa aspect really doesn't come into play. I mean you can see it but you can't really taste it. About the only way to sums these up would be to tell you they are like a cross between animal and chicken in a basket crackers. Yeah, I may just have to "forget" to take these home.


PURCHASED FROM:
Kam Man Market NYC

Lemon & Honey Pretz

Pretz is Pocky's savory cousin and you would think by proxy it would have to be good
Well like any other family, some members are pretty cool and some members you put up with because you have to.
From my tone so far can you guess where this Pretz stand?

I loved the idea; lemon is good. Honey is good. The two of them together is good as a rule right?- so what what wrong here?

The first taste is a sweet honey. It's not sticky but it is there none the less. Then the lemon hits. It's a fake lemon from hell. this lovely concoction is on a wheat cracker base that on it's own is basically an animal cracker.

If you have ever wondered what a honey-lemon cough drop flavored animal cracker would taste like then this is your dream come true. For everyone else... um, well the box is pretty cute. That's about the nicest thing I can say.

PURCHASED FROM:
Amazon.Com